Field of the Invention
The present disclosure is in the field of treating or preventing obesity.
Description of the Related Art
It has been suggested that major adult diseases including coronary arteriosclerosis, hypertension, hyperlipidemia or coronary heart disease and the like originate in overweight and obesity not only in adults but also in children.
Current treatment for obesity is based on two mechanisms. One is to regulate central nerve system and the other is to regulate digestive system. Drug belongs to the first classification is Lorcaserin (BELVIQ®) which is an agonist for serotonin 2C and Phentermine (FASTIN®, OSYMIA®) which releases noradrenalin. Orlistat (XENICAL®) inhibits the action of lipase released from stomach and pancreas. These drugs act by suppressing appetite and digestion or stimulating energy metabolism, which however, are associated with the side effects such as dizziness, headache, and trouble sleeping (Roger A. H, Trends in Neurosciences 2013;36(2):133-140).
Particularly in the case of severe obesity, the treatment is not effective with the conventional drugs because mast cells are continuously produced from adipose stem cells. Thus the gastrectomy is the only option in these patients, which however is not a satisfactory solution due to the side effects and high cost for the treatment in view of the efficacy. Thus there are needs to develop a new drug to treat obesity based on a fundamental approach which can prevent the generation of mast cells from adipocyte stem cells.
KR Patent No. 1232872 relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising sphingosine-1-phospate or salts thereof for treating or preventing obesity and discloses treating obesity by suppressing the differentiation of mast cells in which sphingosine-1-phospate suppress the expression of PPAR-gamma (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma) and C/EBP (CCAT enhancer binding proteins) which are known to induce the differentiation of mast cells by activating or increasing the expression of sphingosine-1-phospate receptor 2.
There are needs to develop drugs for treating or preventing obesity based on the novel mechanism of suppressing adipocyte cell differentiation.